Report of tee State Geologist. 



387 



very fine private collection of fossils illustrating the Silurian, 

 Devonian and Carboniferous formations of the west. From 

 this collection I borrowed a few specimens for comparison with 

 species already in our collections* 



On the fifth of November I left Indianapolis for Springfield, 

 Illinois, for the purpose of visiting the State Museum of Natural 

 History at the Capitol, where I made a careful examination of the 

 public collections, especially of the Brachiopoda. 



I also made a partial examination of the private collections of 

 the late Prof. Worthen, which is in part arranged in cases of 

 drawers and partly packed in boxes in a room adjacent to the 

 State Museum. From the public collection I selected about 100 

 specimens, which I proposed to borrow for the purposes of com- 

 parison with those of our own Museum. Many of these were 

 from the Carboniferous system, and I am especially desirous of 

 comparing these, not only in their specific characters but with a 

 view to a comparison of the nomenclature adopted in the publi- 

 cations of the Illinois survey. 



At a later date the collections from the State Museum of Illinois 

 were sent to Albany, and have served an important purpose in the 

 comparison of species, and were very useful in the grouping of 

 the various forms under the genus Spirifera. 



In order to hasten the termination of my work of examining 

 collections I employed Mr. C. Schuchert, of Cincinnati, to examine 

 and report to me upon the character of a collection belonging to 

 Mr. Vaupel of Cincinnati, and another belonging to Mr. Moores 

 of Columbus, Ohio. The results of this examination embodied in 

 a special report are already before the committee upon the State 

 Museum. 



In concluding my account of this itinerary, I wish to express 

 my thanks to all the gentlemen named, who both in their publio 

 and private capacity, treated me most cordially and entered into 

 the spirit of my object and purposes in obtaining a collection of 

 the Brachiopoda for study, preliminary to a revision of the genera 

 of that class of fossils. 



I would more especially express my great obligations to Prof. 

 John Collett, who has been untiring in his exertions to facilitate 

 my work, and who has traveled with me for some hundreds of 

 miles to visit some of the localities and collections in the State of 

 Indiana. His presence was always cheering, his introductions 



